Oleksandr Danyliuk, former advisor at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, reported on Facebook that Russian security services have eliminated the terrorist Igor Bezler for refusing to cooperate with Russian military authorities.
“According to available information, the gang leader Igor Bezler ( “Bes”) has been eliminated by Russian security services,” Danyliuk wrote on his Facebook, November 7. “The reason for his elimination was his refusal to submit to the Russian military command and his intention to publicly acknowledge that the Horlivka-Makiyivka conglomerate controlled by his gang is Ukrainian territory and to urge members of other gangs to seek a compromise with the Ukrainian government.”
According to Danyliuk, the organizer of the murder plot was a senior Russian officer named Suvorkin, but the specific location of the murder has not be determined. Apparently, Bezler left Horlivka to meet with an unknown person in Donetsk and disappeared en route. “In fact his deputies disappeared as well, as did his bodyguards who accompanied him” Danyliuk said. However, he did not provide sources for his information.
As previously reported, Bezler was one of the leaders of the Donetsk separatists and the commander of the so-called “people’s militia” in Horlivka. He was a close associate of the Russian ultra-nationalist commander Igor Strelkov (Girkin) and was widely believed to be the man behind the downing of the Malaysian passenger jet. In fact, Ukrainian authorities claimed his voice was on the recording of an intercepted telephone conversation between him and a handler in Russia regarding the downed plane. He also was implicated in the murder of Horlivka City Council deputy Volodymyr Rybak and others.
Previously, Dmytro Tymchuk, of the Information Resistance Group, reported that the gang formed by Igor Bezler in Horlivka had been neutralized, with a number of the militants transferred to a single DNR command, while others have vanished.
On November 1, Igor Strelkov reported that Bezler supposedly had left the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR). Information also surfaced that Bezler had decided never to return to the Donbas.
Former Governor of the Donetsk Oblast Serhiy Taruta has confirmed that Bezler was the only DNR leader who actively pursued a dialogue with Ukrainian authorities and who claimed to be uncomfortable with DNR because “they rob and kill.”
Oleg Tsarev, who calls himself speaker of the “Novorosiya parliament,” said that Bezler is alive and that reports of his death are false. Olena Romanova, administrator of the group “Bezler Info.” (which publishes news on the militants of Horlivka), told the Russian RBC agency that Bezler is alive and in Russia and that she has spoken with him.
At a press briefing on Friday, November 7, Ukraine’s Security Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko stated that the information on Bezler is being reviewed but has not yet been confirmed.
